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The castle ofSu i ssać near    built in the ijth century.

Carcasonne is a typical    (Author’sphotograph)

smali Southern castle,

the morał problems faced by a knight were inherent in his role as a fighting man, in his duty to his lord and his loyalty to his fellows. This was clearly recognised by churchmen like the I2th century hermit Stephen of Muret who wrote:

‘It shows admirable knowledge, and is very pleasing to God, when a man who is involved in an evil enterprise restrains himself from evil. It can be done like this. If a knight is setting out on an expedition for the sake of his secular lord, to whom he cannot refuse obedience, if he wishes to be faithful to God let him first speak thus in his heart: “Lord God, I will go on this expedition but I promise that I shall be your knight there, wanting nothing in it except to be obedient to you, to eliminate evil and to seek after what is good on every occasion as much as I can.” ’

Meanwhile Church-led Peace of God movements spread across France; and the knightly milites sub-mitted to this new discipline with remarkable ease, probably because it offered Church recognition of their new status.

Greater wealth also enabled the knights to de-velop their own codę of ‘chivalry’ and to patronise trouveres and troubadours. The 12th century is some-times still seen as the golden age of chivalry when the Church was able to control the new power of the knights, but it was rarely seen this way at the time.

War could be appallingly savage, even against fellow Christians, and King Louis VI’s execution of the defenders of Crecy-sur-Serre in 1115 was merely one example of terror tactics. Nor were i2th century knights’ ladies such delicate flowers, for there were plenty of examples of herce chdtelaines defending castles while their husbands were away. Not until the i3th century did the three forces seeking to influence the knight’s conscience—feudal values, religion, and women—lead to that ‘chivalry’ still regarded as typical of medieval Europę. A requirement to please the ladies had been added late in the i2th century and as the cult of Courtly Love spread, ‘amorousness’ became another chivalric virtue. Only the increased savagery and the involvement of morę non-combatants which characterised i4th and i5th century warfare at last madę this noble set of ideals irrelevant.

Mercenaries and infantry

Mercenaries fought in French armies in the late ioth century and by the nth the term soldeier or paid warrior was common. The use of such troops within

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